In Pen
by Octoya
Summary: The happy ending everyone thought they got is marred by Toriel's untimely death. Unable to fix it, the most that Frisk can do is try to solve the mystery with their friends. And as more and more deaths begin occurring in New New Home, the child will... probably try to solve those too? Nothing is going the way that they thought it would. But, surely... Rated for violence.
1. Tutorial Level

_~Prologue: Toriel~_

It's so painful, so painful a feeling.

When a monster dies... when their HP is set to zero, their bodies fall apart, too weak to sustain themselves any longer. Everything of that monster perishes. Their body, their mind, even their clothes- should the monster be wearing clothes of magic, they all crumble away into the white grains that comprised monster dust. While that happens the soul inside it is conscious. It is released from the protective cage of the monster's body. Once it is freed, often even before the body has completely disappeared, it too turns to dust and scatters. What becomes of the monster without a soul or body is not known. Their memories, at least, live peacefully through the dust. But... before then, it's a painful feeling.

It's not that the body turning to dust physically hurts-a monster is at that point beyond physical pain-but accompanying death is a kind of despair that only the dying could feel.

She recognized it immediately. She had seen it before. Perhaps it was because so many had died before her, had died because of her in one way or another. In fact, maybe that alone was the reason why she was facing it now for herself. And it must have been why, as she knelt in pain, ashy white tears running down her face, she was not assaulted with any sense of the unknown. On the contrary, she knew exactly what was coming. She clutched her hands over her breast trying to face it, unsure even now how she could. Her whole body shook as it unraveled.

Then the pain stopped. All sensations stopped. Her SOUL could have lasted for a few moments more, but there was no reason to fight it any longer, so that soon disappeared too.

And all there was left was the experience of love that she left behind. A love that, hopefully, could reach someone else...

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Heya! I'm making a new Pacifist route fic! If you're someone who took notice of me from ASL Tutorial, this is going to be a different verse from that. It's, rather, one based on my own interpretations of the game. With that in mind, a lot of the stuff I post in The Mt. Ebott Dare will probably apply here, but this is technically a separate verse from that too.

 **Next Chapter:** Survival Run


	2. Survival Run

_~Chapter 1: Alphys~_

It happened so quickly, but the news spread like molasses. Despite everything, monsters weren't willing to spread bad news of this nature when they could hardly believe it themselves. And why was it so difficult to believe? Well, aside from the suddenness of the crime it wasn't like every detail of it was one hundred percent confirmed. Identifying bodies was difficult in the monster culture, if no one was present to see the monster die in the first place.

All they knew was that there was a pile of dust in the kitchen of the home where Toriel lived with the human ambassador for monsters.

There also was the fact that Toriel was missing.

But still, there were those who denied the news, and didn't allow it to move too fast through the city through gossip. Perhaps it was best that way. If everyone was being forced to accept that Toriel, the long lost queen, had... well, the new ambassador for monsters would be swarmed with citizens of New New Home and elsewhere in the Monster Kingdom, all of them demanding answers that the child surely didn't have.

To prevent that, although it wasn't really happening yet in the first place, Frisk was staying at Alphys' house for the time being. There, no one would visit except for the good friends who knew the news and whom the child trusted to know what had happened. Frisk had whispered themself that they couldn't handle seeing anybody else right now.

Alphys understood. To wake up in the middle of the night and find their mother dead, her dust spread over the tiles as if she had just been in the middle of making something... and to not even know why. When Alphys rushed over, after having that phone call- she was the closest to Toriel's house, so it was only logical to call her- the child had been crying over that dust and getting it all over their striped sweater. Alphys had never seen Frisk cry before. It was a pitiful sight, one that tugged on her heart- and not in the good way.

A day had passed since then, and they hadn't cried again. Alphys found that a merciful relief, which made her guiltier than her words could say. After she took the shaking human away from that sight, she plopped them on the couch in her house and there they've stayed, staring at the TV that played anything with a vacant expression on their face. When Alphys tried to talk to them, they didn't say anything.

That was normal for Frisk, but this time... Her voice had cracked all over from the other end of the phone line, and it likely would keep cracking if pressed to say anything now.

Hence, despite her distress, Alphys hadn't asked Frisk for any more details. She just began to call the relevant people, swallowing all her fear for the sake of the child, and tried to figure this out on her own. The former guard was called, the only people she could think that might be charged with taking the dust away for a funeral. The only people who might investigate into the matter, although there weren't really detectives in the Monster Kingdom per se... she thought to call some of her friends, too. Asgore, Undyne, Sans.

But everyone was taking the news really badly, and that made Alphys have a harder and harder time with the phone. Eventually, after being greeted with Sans' complete silence as soon as she told him the news, she stopped calling people. Surely word was going to get around no matter what, right?

Alphys and Frisk both sat silently on the couch together, then, as the new night was wearing on. Some anime was playing- it was actually a really good one, one that she had seen herself before, about pirates and buried treasure- but Alphys was sure that Frisk wasn't watching it. Alphys wasn't really watching it either. She was sweating and drinking soda, which wasn't doing much to calm her nerves but was at least satisfying her sweet tooth, which was really the only thing that would be satisfied right now.

At one point, while she drank, she noticed Frisk glance over at her. So she asked, "Did you w-w-want something to drink?"

The child shook their head, curling in a little bit tighter.

Looking at her feet, Alphys tapped the cap of her soda and murmured softly, "Y-you haven't eaten o-or drunken an-anything in quite a w-w-while... you should k-keep up your strength."

Frisk only shook their head again.

To be honest, Alphys could understand how they felt. They were in an in-between period right now. No one had visited them yet; the canine unit said that they would come to ask them questions as soon as they were done scoping everything out in their... own way. None of the people Alphys called had come over yet, for one reason or another. Frisk hadn't even gone back home or said anything about what happened aside from what Alphys had heard that tear-stained voice say over the phone.

All of that added up to a feeling that time was standing still.

Alphys had felt that way for a very long portion of her life, and she knew how destructive it could be. Even her house in New New Home was littered with empty food containers, bottles, trash that she hadn't thrown out yet...

Somehow, she had to help Frisk get through this.

So she stood up, contorting her face in a smile in spite of how painful it felt. "L-look, I'm gonna g-get you something to eat, okay? J-just so you don't s-s-starve." Even as Frisk shook their head again, she persisted, "Y-you'll thank me later."

The child said nothing, staring at their knees instead.

Walking past the living room to her study for the moment, Alphys pushed through the cartons of microwave ramen on the floor and found the mini fridge she'd installed below her desk. From it, she fished out one of the few other packages of food she had, this one for microwave lasagna, and checked the label to make sure it was still good. She didn't know if Frisk liked lasagna or not, but usually they seemed to be happy with whatever they ate. She shuffled to the microwave, listening carefully for anything going on in the living room.

It wasn't something she liked to think about, all things considered, but Alphys had to wonder why this was all still happening. What she had been led to believe, some time ago, was that any time something bad like... this... happened... Frisk could, with determination, "load" and reverse it. They called it "resetting".

Now Alphys didn't know all the specifics of this ability of theirs, but something like Toriel being killed was surely a candidate for making Frisk reset. So why hadn't the human done it already?

Maybe they were too depressed to be determined...?

All the more reason for her to heat up the lasagna for them. She called out, "Do you want cheese on this?"

 _Knock knock._

"Oh!" Alphys ran to the door, plate of frozen lasagna sitting in the open microwave. She heard the couch squeak and groan as Frisk stood up, their feet dragging across the pink carpet.

Alphys saw them moving out of the corner of her eye when she answered the door.

It was Undyne, along with Doggo.

 _Oh thank god!-!-!_

Alphys hadn't meant to, but upon seeing Undyne she wasn't able to stop herself. She threw herself into the other's arms, fighting a sudden lump in her throat. "T-there you are! What took you so long!?"

She could feel Undyne's strong arms wrapping around her and her heart skipped a beat. Her rough voice met her ears, "I wanted to see the place for myself. I... we... the dogs and me... we searched the house top to bottom. Finally got all the dust cleaned up too." On reflection, that rough voice also seemed to be fighting a lump, one that only reinforced the pain that was moving through Alphys' heart. She didn't let go so Undyne wouldn't see her crying.

Unfortunately, Undyne pulled her away a few minutes later. She had a tired expression on her face. "We didn't find anything."

"O-o-oh..." Now Alphys wiped at her eyes, taking off her glasses to wipe those too although no tears had gotten on them yet. "You didn't find anything at all...?"

Undyne looked about to speak, and then Doggo looked about to speak, but the only sound that came from anyone was a sudden beeping as Frisk inputted settings into the microwave, followed by the hum of cheap food cooking.

Glancing deeper into the house, Undyne whispered, "Are they still up at this hour?"

Alphys sniffed, "T-they haven't slept s-since... since... then."

Undyne frowned at that, and Doggo added with a cautious glance around the entryway, "Are they here? Can we ask them stuff?"

"P-please, I-I think they're still in shock," Alphys said. "Th-they said they don't want to see anyone."

While Doggo gave a pained, almost frustrated whine at this, Undyne nodded and slammed her hand on his head, roughly picking him up and setting him down on the front step with a motion so casual that it betrayed how often she'd done it. Doggo whined louder and she spoke at a higher octave, cutting him off. "If she doesn't want to see anyone, she won't see anyone. Except me, of course," saying so, she flashed a grin at Alphys which vanished immediately. Alphys couldn't bring herself to smile back, even if Undyne was trying to be brave for all of them. "If that's okay."

The gentle humming of the lasagna cooking continued on from the kitchen.

Undyne wanted to get to the bottom of this, and she wanted to do it quickly. That was understandable. She and Toriel hadn't been best friends the way that she was with Frisk, at least not by Alphys' understanding, but Toriel had been a beloved figure in the community. And Frisk loved her too. So figuring out what the cause of her death was had to be a must.

Alphys wiped her eyes again. "I... I guess. I guess we can try. We can a-ask them."

" _Well_ I'll just go then if you don't need me, Undyne," the member of the canine unit standing on the front step muttered to himself, dejected. Alphys spoke up, "P-please come back soon..." and when she did, he moved with a little less disappointment. He slowly made his way away from the house, seeing by the grass and tree branches swaying in the night air.

With just Undyne, Alphys pulled her fully inside the house and shut the door. Her tears were still coming, no matter how many times she wiped her eyes. "Did you really not find anything...?" She whispered again.

Undyne looked for Frisk and saw them waiting patiently in the kitchen. To Alphys, their eyes were still that glassy shade that they'd been ever since leaving the house. Threatening to turn red with tears but never quite reaching that stage. In a low voice, the former captain of the royal guard said, "We mostly just found her dust. ...I'm pretty sure they're hers. The necklace that Frisk gave her for Mother's Day was in the pile."

"O-oh dear," Alphys choked.

"Yeah. No sign of how she died, though. The door was wrecked, so I think... I think that someone might have come in and done it while she was making something. I don't know."

The lasagna was done. Frisk looked over at Alphys and Undyne before taking it out and gingerly carrying the hot plate back over to the couch. Alphys asked, in just as low a voice, "...Who?"

Undyne sighed. " _I don't know_. I just said I don't know!"

"S-s-sorry..."

There was another sigh, so soon after the first. "It's fine, I just... there really wasn't much. The canine unit didn't smell much either. So I think I'm gonna need help on this. Do you think you guys could help me?"

"O-of c-course! Of course I can help you, U-undyne!" The other monster sputtered immediately. But then Frisk on the couch started to slowly eat the lasagna, before putting the plate down on the floor and curling up again. "Uh... I-I think Frisk might need more time. I mean it has to be hard for them. It-it was only yesterday..."

Undyne nodded. "I won't make them say anything."

Alphys stumbled after her friend when they approached the human, clearing their throat. While Frisk's blank eyes lazily moved in her direction, she picked up the plate of lasagna and set it down beside the child, rather than on the floor. Undyne then stood in front of them, expression softening when their eyes met.

"Hey..." She said hoarsely, "How are you doing?" Frisk didn't reply, except to glance at Alphys yet again. So Undyne continued, "I know you're probably not doing very well right now, but... do you think you could help me out?"

The question was visible in their expression, the _how_ which Undyne would have to think of an answer for. With a sick face, the child was starting to eat the lasagna again and didn't look at either of them. So they didn't interrupt when Undyne continued, slowly, in a gentle voice that even Alphys wasn't aware she was capable of making, "You don't have to say anything for this, uh. I just wanted to know if you heard anything or saw anything suspicious before it happened, or even after it happened? If you can just... nod? Or shake your head, I-"

Frisk shook their head, face screwing up.

Undyne sighed. "Okay," it was what she expected, but Alphys too felt a little disappointed. "Then, what about before that night? Was there anyone that seemed off to you? Was there anyone that seemed like they wanted to hurt Toriel?"

"..." Frisk shook their head again.

Now, as the child refused to look up, Undyne knelt down to be better at their level. "Uh. This question might bother you a bit, but..." As the human glanced up, the monster asked, "Have you ever seen this before?"

The question was confusing, but they all knew what Undyne meant.

Gripping their knees and sinking into their sweater, Frisk shook their head again and Undyne grunted, standing back up. "Yeah. Okay. So that rules out a few things, I guess?-?"

What exactly that ruled out, Alphys didn't know. But Undyne was the one investigating for now. She didn't look happy about it. Undyne wasn't the type of person to solve mysteries, she was the type of person to punch out bad guys. There was no bad guy to punch out, though, not yet.

"Anyway!" Undyne barked, and the other two people in the room stood at attention. The bark became a little softer then, "We don't actually know if someone actually did this. It could have been an accident." Alphys and Frisk exchanged glances, and although Frisk's eyes were as hollow as ever Alphys was sure that she could read their incredulity. Monsters by nature were incapable of accidentally killing each other-or at least, they would have to be colossally stupid to manage it on accident. Or they'd have to be accidentally killing someone who was incredibly weak to begin with. And Toriel, too, wasn't stupid enough to get herself killed in a cooking mishap.

Seeing their faces, Undyne shook her head. "Look, I don't know. I'm gonna have to send the canine unit all over letting everyone know we have a possible murderer in New New Home. I guess I'm not looking forward to that."

Frisk's breath caught.

Undyne looked over and pulled her into her arms. "Hey, hey, uh... it's gonna be okay, okay? If it's someone who did this, I won't let them near you! You got it?"

Standing back from the fish monster, Frisk nodded faintly. It seemed that they were done talking for the moment, so Undyne nodded back at the child before turning to Alphys. "Okay. You didn't see anything suspicious either, did you?" In a lower voice, she murmured, "I could use all the help I can get, here."

But she didn't have anything to give for her. No leads. When Alphys had rushed over to Frisk's house she wasn't looking for suspicious people. She just saw the big pile of monster dust on the tiles and Frisk screaming for Toriel, and... well her instinct was to get the two of them out of there as fast as possible. She might have even gotten some of the dust on her pajamas- certainly she washed them very carefully that night.

So, while Undyne watched her intently, Alphys shook her head with an apologetic look. "I'm just as clueless as Frisk."

There was a sigh, at that, and one that made her feel like garbage. "I guess that's it," Undyne said, scratching her head. "I'm gonna... go make a report for Asgore. It's not really my job anymore, but, I think he'll appreciate it?" Another attempt at a smile. When it wasn't reciprocated, she instead patted Frisk hard on the back, making the child cough their lasagna the rest of the way down. "...Stay safe, Frisk."

The human nodded, and Undyne gave Alphys a peck on the forehead before she departed. "You too, Alphy."

It took a moment for the blush and glow to fade, after which Alphys returned her guilty gaze over to the child who just stood in front of the couch, unable to sit again and leaving the last bites of lasagna untouched. Talking had moved that glassy expression to something new, something else that she recognized, something that was starting to well up in a very real way within tears. Right now. "Oh!"

Betrayed, Frisk covered their face and their back shuddered when Alphys ran forward, wrapping her arms around the child. The sobs came again, and her own heart was breaking as she blinked hard. "Oh, oh, oh no... i-i-its okay, it's okay, Frisk..." Wait. No, no it wasn't. Toriel was dead. That's not okay. What, then? "I-I...it's going to b-be okay," she corrected herself. There. That was closer, right?

"I..." Frisk's tremulous voice was muffled, their face pressed against their own hands and against Alphys. "I want..."

"S-shh..." Being 'shh'd had never made Alphys feel better, yet here she went. "Shhh..."

"Want to fi... fix it..." The sobs continued. Although she hugged them tighter, the child spoke through sobs and through cloth and clammy palms. "I wa- ant... to..."

"I-i-i-it's going to be okay."

"C-can't... I... can't..."

Alphys' glasses were getting misty and dirtied with tearstains. She couldn't speak. Now it was Frisk who was doing so, while she could only choke trying not to make a sound. Frisk sounded like they were throwing up each word as their sobs got more violent, breathing hard "I can't... reset..."

Now, everything changed. Alphys' heart turned to lead. "Uh- uh- W-what?"

"Keep trying," Frisk heaved, "To go back t-to... birthday..." Their eighth birthday, five months ago. She remembered coming up to Mt. Ebott with them with a chocolate cake and all the friends they could think to invite. The human had ducked into the mountain for only a few moments, to SAVE they said.

SAVING was a biannual event for Frisk. In case they die, or someone else...

"Can't..." They were still saying. "I.. can't..."

For a brief, shameful second, Alphys forgot about the comforting words and the reflexive "shhh"s. She gripped Frisk like they were going to disappear at any moment, and squeezed her eyes shut. Her teeth were chattering. "Why not? Why can't you?"

"Just... can't." The sobs were giving way to harsh sniffs, whimpers, and quieter sounds as Frisk's shivering stilled. "Keep trying... nothing happens," and then even their hoarse voice came to a complete stop.

All Alphys could feel that let her know the child was still breathing was their hiccups, and the way their back shuddered with every deep breath. She patted them again and again, resuming the quiet "shhhs" and reassurance that- although things were definitely _not_ okay- everything would get better soon. Soon.

Even though Frisk could normally make things better instantly.

In that context, Alphys supposed "soon" must feel like forever.

* * *

As scary as that crying was, it seems that that did the trick as far as breaking Frisk out of the in-between time went. By the time morning rolled around for both of them it had come to a stop, and Frisk even drifted off to sleep before too long.

Their deeply breathing body was curled up on the sofa, an empty plate by their toes. Sitting next to that empty plate and watching the TV at the lowest volume setting, Alphys hadn't slept at all; surrounding her were cans of her favorite lemon soda, and she jittered and twitched. Glad that the human wasn't awake to see her when she was in her all-nighter mode. It wasn't at her best, and even her best wasn't exactly pristine and professional.

As the time on the clock neared seven o'clock, she decided at last that she would get around for the day and turned off the TV. The lack of sound made Frisk turn over in their sleep, but they kept on sleeping. At that, Alphys made a small sigh of relief. Morning or not, it was probably best not to wake them, considering how long they'd gone without rest. So she moved about the morning in tired silence, drinking a little more soda and resisting thinking about it all. Instead trying to think about Mew Mew Kissy Cutie, her go-to. But that wasn't working so well by the time she'd gotten a bowl of cereal ready.

The sugar she put on her cereal was also a white powder and that just made her feel like some kind of sick cannibal.

She couldn't do this. Why had Frisk called her and not someone more responsible?

Alphys put her head in her hands and shook, hoping that the sound of her tears wouldn't wake Frisk up too. She was an ugly crier. She was an ugly everything, really, but her full out crying tended to get pretty loud.

 _Why did this happen?_

 _How did this happen?_

Who could be strong enough to kill Toriel? Who would even want to? Unable to understand it, Alphys sobbed into her sugarless cereal and made squeaks and weird sawing noises as she tried to quiet herself down.

The only one trying to answer these questions right now was Undyne. She was so quick and so eager to get to the point, she was probably searching the neighborhood even now. Alphys hadn't been able to help her one bit when she visited last night. And she was supposed to be the smart one; if she couldn't provide answers, what good was she?

Wiping her face and snorting her mucus, Alphys stood up from the chair with her hands clenched. The sound of Frisk's quiet sleep on the couch in the other room, which reached her when her sobs stopped, filled her up with a tugging desire. One to make things better, and sooner than the "soon" she kept lamely saying to Frisk the other night. Maybe, even as tired as she was, she could still help.

Alphys left a note for Frisk on the couch in case they woke up before she got back.

The canine unit had probably torn the scene up to pieces in terms of evidence, but even so Alphys had to try, as she buttoned up her coat and took her bare minimum tools. She left her house and headed towards Frisk's.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** The biannual SAVE event is based on the idea which I put in all my verses, that Frisk can RESET anywhere but is unable to SAVE outside of Mt. Ebott for various reasons.

 **Next Chapter:** Trail Start


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